English

The Science Cases for Building a Band 1 Receiver Suite for ALMA

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2013-10-31 v3

Abstract

We present the various science cases for building Band 1 receivers as part of ALMA's ongoing Development Program. We describe the new frequency range for Band 1 of 35-52 GHz, a range chosen to maximize the receiver suite's scientific impact. We first describe two key science drivers: 1) the evolution of grains in protoplanetary disks and debris disks, and 2) molecular gas in galaxies during the era of re-ionization. Studies of these topics with Band 1 receivers will significantly expand ALMA's Level 1 Science Goals. In addition, we describe a host of other exciting continuum and line science cases that require ALMA's high sensitivity and angular resolution. For example, ALMA Band 1 continuum data will probe the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in galaxy clusters, Very Small Grains and spinning dust, ionized jets from young stars, spatial and flaring studies of Sgr A*, the acceleration sites of solar flares, pulsar wind nebulae, radio supernovae, and X-ray binaries. Furthermore, ALMA Band 1 line data will probe chemical differentiation in cloud cores, complex carbon chain molecules, extragalactic radio recombination lines, masers, magnetic fields through Zeeman effect measurements, molecular outflows from young stars, the co-evolution of star formation and active galactic nuclei, and the molecular content of galaxies at z ~ 3. ALMA provides similar to better sensitivities than the JVLA over 35-50 GHz, with differences increasing with frequency. ALMA's smaller antennas and shorter baselines, greater number of baselines, and single-dish capabilities, however, give it a significant edge for observing extended emission, making wide-field maps (mosaics), or attaining high image fidelity, as required by the described science cases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1310.1604,
  title  = {The Science Cases for Building a Band 1 Receiver Suite for ALMA},
  author = {J. Di Francesco and D. Johnstone and B. C. Matthews and N. Bartel and L. Bronfman and S. Casassus and S. Chitsazzadeh and H. Chou and M. Cunningham and G. Duchene and J. Geisbuesch and A. Hales and P. T. P. Ho and M. Houde and D. Iono and F. Kemper and A. Kepley and P. M. Koch and K. Kohno and R. Kothes and S. -P. Lai and K. Y. Lin and S. -Y. Liu and B. Mason and T. J. Maccarone and N. Mizuno and O. Morata and G. Schieven and A. M. M. Scaife and D. Scott and H. Shang and M. Shimojo and Y. -N. Su and S. Takakuwa and J. Wagg and A. Wootten and F. Yusef-Zadeh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.1604},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

74 pages; this document is a major revision of one posted previously as arXiv:0910.1609